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Tuesday, December 31, 2013

WWE Stackdown Wrestling Ring

A building brick wrestling ring? I've wanted this ever since the WWE Stackdown sets were announced. Of course it's ridiculously expensive.

So first things first, this is C3, which is the Art Asylum building bricks that they created to make vehicles the first time they tried their hand at DC Comics minimates. Then as now, the bricks didn't feel as solid or strong as Lego bricks, but that's a complaint that can be leveled at almost all brick building sets.

In this particular instance though, it's a real problem. You see, the larger plates have a tendency to warp a little, so trying to stack a plate on top of another plate results in frustration as one corner keeps popping up, no matter how hard you try to flatten it or make it stick to the plate underneath. Which wouldn't normally be a problem except that this ring build requires you to place four plates on top of four other plates and the end result was I just removed an entire layer of plates from the build to get the bricks to stay attached to one another. So the base isn't as solid as it should be.

Actually, nothing sticks to the plates very well. Those steps keep feeling like they're about to pop off on their own.

And that's my main problem with this set. The bricks don't feel solid once you connect them. They feel flimsy, like they'll break apart if you just leave them there. The final build doesn't feel strong. This could also be an issue with how the build is constructed, the placement of bricks doesn't feel like they're forming a strong foundation to build off of.

On the bright side, once it's all put together, it looks nice, even if I have ignored using the provided cardboard bunting for the ring. It's just too branded for my tastes.

The minifigures are very basic. They lack the iconic look of Lego minifigures, or the Lego feeling of solid plastic. They're more like Mega Blok figures, but with a surprising amount of articulation. Even so, I've ignored most of these in favor of using minimates. (The first waves of DC Minimates came with C3 sets, so their feet were designed to plug into building bricks. Since that time all minimates have what are called "C3 feet" which means they can be plugged into any traditionally designed building brick.)